ChaLEAN Extreme Reviews: Push Circuit 1

I have to admit that I have been patiently waiting for the 2nd month and the Push Circuit of ChaLEAN Extreme. When my copy was delievered by UPS, I poured through the guides, and read everything I could read. The setup for the Push Circuit was right up my alley. Chalene Johnson, the trainer on ChaLEAN Extreme, asks you to lift even heavier weight this circuit. You should be failing between 6 and 8 reps. On the burn circuit, you were failing at 10-12 reps. Since you are dropping reps, you should be raising the weight appropriately. Remember, you want to fail, with GOOD form. Once you start to lose form, you’re done.

ChaLEAN ExtremePush Circuit 1 is approximately 33 minutes. You have the standard 4-5 minute warm up as always, and then at the end you have about a 2 minute cool down. So if you are like me, you may do the quick math, and say, that’s not a very long workout! I was even thinking, maybe I will add some more sets in once the regular workout is over. I finished the workout this morning, and additional sets was the LAST thing on my mind. For beginners through advanced, I think this is a great workout! Now I may add something later, but I wanted to see how I felt after the regular workout first. So now, on to the workout itself:

Standard Bicep Curl. This isn’t the standard bicep curl you see in the gym. No swinging, you’re not arching your back to lift the weight, no rocking, and all that other stuff typical of gym rats. But I should say that cautiously, I know some gym rats (I use to be one) where control and form was rock solid. But in this set, you are lifting slow and steady. Isolating your biceps to do ALL the work.

Single Arm Bent-over Tricep Extension. Be careful on this one. You don’t want to get too much weight and lose your form. If you are lifting this weight slowly, and contracting at the top, you don’t need a lot of weight to make this work!

V-Pres Bicep Curl. This one was tough for me. I’m still working through some soreness in my shoulder/bicep area. You are lifting into a standard bicep curl, but you stop halfway. You then angle your arms outwards, an then press upwards. You lower back down, then turn to the front and lower again. You might have to see this one to see how it actually works, but it’s a tough exercise, and you can tell it works!

Extreme Biceps. It’s now time for the first of MANY extreme sets. You get a little spoiled in the Burn Circuit, where you do 2-3 extreme sets. If you are lifting heavy at the regular set and “failing” between 6 and 8, when it’s time to do the extreme sets, you should be very close to muscle failure. Meaning you can’t lift anymore.

Single Leg Squat. This is another challenging exercise. By isolating one leg at a time, you can really make your leg work. I had to really focus in to complete this set.

Extreme Single Leg Squat (each side). The regular set was bad enough! Next we had to do an extreme set of the same thing. I barely made it through the regular set! As Tony Horton says in P90X, “You gotta get your mind right.” I’m curious to see how my legs feel after this workout. I judge my workouts on how I feel immediately after, and how I feel two days later when the soreness starts to set in. 🙂

Overhead Tricep Extension. On this exercise, a good rule of thumb is to take the total weight of your single arm tricep kickbacks, and then reduce the weight slightly. This was the perfect amount of weight for me. Excellent set!

Extreme Triceps. Again, another extreme set.

Hammer Biceps. Very similar to the standard bicep, except your thumbs are pointing upwards. Chalene cautions us during this DVD, to think about your grip, don’t squeeze the weight so hard that you fatigue to quickly. Focus on the biceps.

Extreme Hammer Biceps. Another breakdown extreme set. I love these extreme sets, you have to imagine the muscle growth you are promoting when you breakdown these muscles, forcing them to get stronger. I love it!

Heel Squat. Just like your standard squat, with the exception of focusing in on your heels. You want to take all the weight off your toes and put them back in your heels. Because of this, you want to lighten your weights down from the standard squat.

Extreme Heel Squat. Need I say more than I already have. Time to get Extreme Baby, as Chalene would say.

Standard Push-Up. Your goal is a total of 12 slow and controlled push ups. When you can no longer stay on your toes, drop to your knees. If you can’t maintain good form before 12, stop. But keep working on your goal of 12. Then after a short 10 second break, you do an extreme set of push ups, and then you are DONE.

When I finished my workout, my arms were fatigued! I have a routine in the mornings. I get up first thing, and workout. After my workout, and cool down, I mix up my recovery drink, and head to the office to work through emails. This morning, I was so tired, and my arms so tired, that I had to take breaks from my email. lol. If you work hard during this 30 minutes, and you lift heavy, fail between 6-8, you can not help but to get a GREAT workout.

Thanks for reading my ChaLEAN Extreme Reviews. I hope you will come back again and again, for more articles and reviews, and please subscribe if you like. I’m very approachable, so please feel free to contact me by email or comments. Have a great day!

2 Comments

zwicked19 on January 5, 2011 at 2:22 pm

I’m starting Day 31 of Chalene Extreme. Tonight will be my first time with Push Circuit 1. I love this program. I was doing the Insanity program from October through November last year but it felt very repetitive for me. This program is great. I’m lifting heavier than I thought I could. Chalene is a great motivator. I also listen to her Extreme Motivation CD in the morning on my way to work. I hope to have success with this program as I did with P90X